


Part 9 (Noctis x Reader)

by hypaalicious



Series: Chocobros x Reader [12]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 11:38:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17223341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypaalicious/pseuds/hypaalicious
Summary: Your king has finally returned, with the weight of everything he endured and will endure on his shoulders.





	Part 9 (Noctis x Reader)

**Author's Note:**

> This took longer than it should have. I blame the holiday season, which I'm so glad is finally over. I'm also still cross posting to Tumblr despite the ban and downfall of that hellsite, but only because I like adding gif headers to my chapters sometimes. Also, my summaries are being made with even less of an effort than normal, because I just wanna post my porn-with-too-much-plot and move on, LOL! At this point, if y'all are reading this, y'all know what y'all are about.

The dreary landscape stretched on for miles, but it wasn’t anything that you hadn’t seen before.  The first few times on patrol rotation were rough, because you got to see more than just small pockets of daemon infestation, and it pained you to see the land you grew up and and loved so much fully ravaged by the denizens of the night.  Outposts were abandoned and completely torn apart.  Once bustling landmarks and photo opportunities that Prompto made sure that everyone took the time out to capture on film were shadows of what they used to be and looked older than what they were.  The gleam of the headlights in the shambling truck Talcott drove at a leisurely pace only caught on the glowing eyes of a variety of daemons prowling about, but they kept their distance from the worst of the glare as they kept their eyes out for anyone who needed help.  


It wasn’t often that the patrols garnered any results; at least, not any that people wanted mentioned.  They began as recon missions that were set upon a few daemon hunters with a soft heart for teary-eyed refugees asking if there was a chance that someone had seen their loved ones.  At most, it meant bringing closure to families that needed it.  If the Astrals were merciful, then perhaps there were those that were found, albeit often worse for wear.  It was enough to organize these mini excursions, taking one of the few functional vehicles out with the protection of superior headlights to ensure that the hunters didn’t become the hunted.  


You had watched Talcott grow up into a fine teenager, now brimming into the newest cusp of adulthood.  He wasn’t a daemon hunter; the darkness hardened a lot of people into taking action, but that sort of vengeance never appealed to the young man.  Instead, he made himself helpful around town, running errands and organizing meet ups, and doing regular equipment runs between Hammerhead and Lestallum.  He knew the area better than most, having grown from a small boy in the town itself, and he used that to his advantage.  


“Almost at the end of the circuit?” You said, feeling your eyes start to zone out and become useless.  The rocking of the vehicle was putting you to sleep, and even though you two were as safe as you could be on the main roads and with a beacon of light, you didn’t like being less alert.  


“Yeah, just about.  You want to turn around now?” Talcott glanced over at you, his brown eyes showing concern under the lid of his ballcap.  


_Such a sweet boy.  I really don’t know how he remained so pure through it all, but it’s definitely a blessing._ “I feel kinda bad, because we’re not supposed to.  But I’m crashing hard, here.  I had an early start, and I _hate_ those.” You stretched, trying to keep from slouching in the passenger seat.  “Doesn’t matter if the sun literally isn’t shining anymore, somehow Gladio has an internal clock that is set to rouse and do insane amounts of training on not enough sleep. And here I thought that he would have loosened up a little over the years."  


Talcott laughed heartily.  “Yeah… I could have told you that.  Even if things are crazy right now, some things don’t change with Gladio.  I remember sometimes waking up early enough to see him go off to training with the Glaives, and he never looked like he hated it.  Always determined, though.  Looking forward.  I was really young at the time, so I can’t say that I understood until much later what all that meant for him.  But still… I admire him.  I’m proud to be able to serve him again, even through this uncertain time we’re in.”  


The truck slowed to a crawl as Talcott spun the steering wheel, preparing to U-turn back towards civilization.  


And if it wasn’t for the break in the crunch of the tires along the crumbling road, you wouldn’t have heard the distinct sound of a dog barking. 

“Wait.  Do you hear that?"  


Both of you seemed to hold your breaths in unison, the puttering of the motor the only background noise as you strained to hear it again.  As if on cue, there was another bark.  And another.  Daemons made a plethora of unsettling noises, but thus far there were none that could imitate a human or an actual animal so smoothly.  But the probability that there would be a domesticated animal not ripped to shreds by the enemies that were afoot wandering around here alone was too small to be believable.  Yet… both you and Talcott sat in stunned and confused silence as the barking got closer.  


“The hell…” he murmured, his brows furrowed as his eyes scanned the landscape through the windshield.  


You, however, weren’t going to be content with that.  Unclasping the seatbelt that held you, your hand undid the latch of the door and let your feet hit the pavement.  The heat from the hood of the truck warmed you through your clothes as you tentatively stepped in front, flanked by the beams of headlights.  The barking was clearer now, echoing through the night.  You took a couple of steps forward, squinting into the distance.  


A furry animal seemed to materialize right before coming into the edge of where the headlight’s beams were weakest, and you gasped as it slowed down from a trot to sit calmly on its haunches in the middle of the road and stare at you with an awareness that you found kind of unsettling.  Its tongue was out and tail was wagging, but you knew this wasn’t an ordinary dog.  It was a dog you hadn’t seen since the first stages of your journey that would change your life in ways you couldn’t have predicted, and your mouth went dry as you watched it.  


“Umbra?” You whispered to yourself.  The dog’s head titled to the side, tail still wagging.  


And then, another figure came to stand next to the furry companion, and you were sure that your heart stopped for a few beats.  All in black, somewhat thin, and definitely shaggy, the man looked around as if he were in a daze.  His head turned from left to right, trying to make sense of where he was, down at Umbra, and then back up at you.  


“… ________?  Is that you?"  


You didn’t remember breaking out into a run.  It was possible that you didn’t know you moved until you had collided with him, almost knocking both of you down to the ground in a heap.  Your arms wrapped around him, pressing him close to you as if you could keep him as real as he hadn’t been for ten straight years.  It could have been a trap; no hunter in their right mind would have blindly rushed into the unknown like that.  But… you _knew_.  Even if Prompto hadn’t mentioned how close it was to his return.  Even if Gladio hadn’t found that stick that got stuck in his ass and pulled it out just in time.  And even if Ignis hadn’t have woken up more often from dreams in which he saw a shadowy figure stepping out from the Lucian crystal.  


You would know your king from anywhere.  


“Took you long enough,” you hiccuped, tears threatening to overflow.  


Noct seemed stuck in slow motion, frozen in his spot before finally reaching his arms up to tentatively return your hug.  Everything seemed to be foreign to him, even the simple act of touching another person.  “I’m worth the wait, right?”  


 His voice seemed scratchy and unused despite the levity he managed to instill in the phrase. You made yourself pull back a bit, and take a look at the man that had arrived in time to reclaim his kingdom… and the rest of Eos.  


You knew that all of you had some semblance of weariness that was evident in your faces; everyone did.  It seemed like a normal mark of passage that anyone who survived the world of ruin carried with them.  But Noct… he looked _haunted_.  His sapphire eyes seemed muted from the normal brightness that you remembered it having, and that made the dark circles in his skin more prominent.  A beard was starting to grow on his face, which added to the haggard energy that he brought with him, and you swore if you looked long enough, you could see that there were a few strands of black hair that were going silver.  


Out of the group, you could definitely say that Noct had physically changed the most.  Now you could clearly see Regis in his features, and you remembered just how much wearing the Ring of the Lucii drained the late king and made him look older than he actually was.  


You knew it to be true, yet still… your heart seized at the realization.  


“Always worth the wait,” you finally answered, smiling through unshed tears.  “C’mon.  Your ride is waiting."  


You wished you could say that the ride back was eventful, but it was just oddly tense. Talcott had stared at Noct just as hard as Noct had stared at him through the rearview mirror for a full minute before the young man decided to reintroduce himself, and that seemed to give Noct another shock.  


“I’ve been… gone for ten _years_?” He said dully.  Umbra had nuzzled his snout underneath Noct’s arm as a way of comfort, but for all you knew, Noct was mentally millions of miles away.  


“Yeah.  Doesn’t seem that long, does it?”  You asked mildly. You wished you could have said the same for yourself, but you had felt every single one of those years of complete darkness.  “The guys are going to be so happy to see you."  


Noct tilted his vision down, and you saw Talcott glance back at him in concern.  “Your majesty?"  


“Sorry.  I’m…” Noct took a moment to swallow.  “This doesn’t feel real to me at all.  I _know_ I’m back.  I know _why_ I’m back.  But I can’t…”  


Frowning a little, you turned your attention to the driver.  “Are the guys still in Hammerhead getting stocked up?"  


Taking one hand off of the wheel to feel around in his pants pocket, he unearthed his cell and glanced quickly down at the screen at his recent messages.  “Yeah.  Gladio always lets me know when they’re back in town, and it hasn’t really been that long.  Did you want me to drop you guys off there?"  


You looked back at your weary king in the backseat.  He seemed like he was falling in on himself and quietly on the verge of a panic attack.  And for as much as you wanted nothing more than to see everyone reunited again, you knew what followed wasn’t exactly a happy journey back into a ghost town of a metropolis.  


“No.  Just go on to Lestallum.  I’ll let them know once they’re back in town for the night.  I think Noct needs a little time to adjust."  


Talcott nodded, and the rest of the ride carried on as easy as it could have been. Noct stared out of the window at the mingling hordes of demons with a look of concern on his face, and Talcott babbled on to pad the silence, filling in the absent king on how the world declined in the past decade.  The raven haired man nodded in intervals, which was the only real indication that he was listening.  You knew it was likely a lot to process, even if he hadn’t been locked away in a crystal for such a long time.  So you refrained from adding to his plate as you pulled into the town, stepping out of the truck and turning to make sure that Noct was alright without looking too much like you were coddling him.  You knew he wouldn’t appreciate it, even as his eyes traveled along the busy new look of Lestallum in the dreariness that encapsulated the land.  


No one stopped to pay any of you any particular mind, used to different faces coming and going.  Umbra trotted off towards the markets, filtering in between groups of people and doing his own thing as you supposed an otherworldly dog was wont to do. Lightly leading Noct by the arm to the Leville, you dug in your pockets for the spare key Prompto had given you for the room he had once he returned to proper civilization.  Although the blond didn’t spend much time in it anymore, he used it as sort of a storage for all of his supplies.  Gladio crashed there when he could, but also split his time between your place and catching up with Iris.  Slowly but surely, the group of you had fallen back into some semblance of the cohesive whole you were before time and trauma separated you all.  There wasn’t a sunless day that went by that you weren’t grateful for it.  
  
And now, the final piece had arrived… and was standing aimlessly in the middle of the hotel room as if he had to be directed where to go.  


You closed the door behind you and sighed, stepping up to Noct and placing your fingers on his shoulder.  “I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now… except massively overwhelmed by life itself, obviously.  You’ve been through a lot, and even though the guys might kill me if they knew you were here and I didn’t tell them, you deserve a little bit of whatever time you need to process.  So go on ahead,” you tipped your chin towards the bathroom.  “A hot shower fixes just about anything. We’ll go from there."  


“Thanks,” Noct said, half turning his head towards you with a trembling smile, and made his feet work to carry him to the shower.  Once he left, you sat down on the edge of the bed and got lost in your thoughts as you listened to the water travel through the pipes.  


Compulsively checking your phone was useless, as you only used to it to talk to your loved ones, and you hadn’t anything to say that didn’t involve incoherent screaming about how the Chosen King had returned.  So you decided to lean back and stare at the ceiling, hoping to catch a small nap in the meantime… but even though your body was slightly sluggish from your early start in the day, your mind was going a million miles a minute and refused to slow so that you could rest.  


You gave it your best shot, however. A decent amount of time crawled by before you sat up and huffed in irritation. _I don’t want to hover, but he’s been in there awhile and I’m hoping he didn’t manage to drown in there or something._ You scooted off of the duvet and walked to the closed bathroom door, fiddling the knob and happy that Noct hadn’t locked it.  


Warm steam greeted you as you stepped in, and you smiled at the fact that some things about Noct hadn’t changed... namely the part how when he got undressed, he retained the bad habit of strewing his clothes everywhere. You went around the room and gathered up items and put them all in one pile off to the side before walking up to the clouded glass of the shower stall and knocking. “Noct? Are you okay?”  


The sound of water hitting the tiled walls filled in the pause before he responded. “Yeah? I think?”  


Frowning a bit, you weren’t satisfied with his reply. Before you knew it, you were stripping off your own clothes and making your way unabashed right into the stall, shivering a bit at the initial feel of your feet on the cold floor before the warmth of the water soothed the bite of it. Through the haze of the steam, you saw Noct sitting down in the stream of the water from the showerhead, his crown bowed and black hair obscuring his face. Immediately, you kneeled in front of him and reached out to his shoulder, shaking him a little. Only a bit of the tension you held at finding him like that left when he jerked his head up and blinked at you.  


“Ah. I’m sorry, I’m a space case today. I don’t mean to worry you, I’m just... I’m thinking about so much, and I’m not used to having anyone around to really pull me out of it.”  


“What happened to you? All that time?”  


Noct shifted a bit so that the back of his head rested against the wall behind him. “The Crystal sucked me in when I found it. Ardyn was taunting me right before it happened, but I was too panicked to really understand what he was saying to me. Not like it mattered, though. Turns out I had plenty of time to make sense of it later.”  


Your eyes shifted downwards at the hint of bitterness in his voice at having ten years of his life taken from him.  


“Bahamut was my only company for a lot of it. Although I’m pretty sure having only an Astral to really communicate with is bad for interpersonal development,” Noct laughed a bit. “I learned about the history of Eos... no, I guess a better way of explaining it was that I _lived_ through it. I saw my ancestors. I saw Ardyn, and what he was before he became the monster we know now. I watched my father ascend the throne... I saw the parts of Luna’s life she never let me know about.” He swallowed. “She was so strong... even to the end.”

You nodded as he fell silent, not knowing what to say. Eventually, you settled for standing up and grasping Noct’s hand, bidding him to do the same. As you maneuvered him under the water, you grabbed the shampoo and lathered it through your hands before going to work on his hair, massaging the pads of your fingers into his scalp as you did so. He sighed softly, closing his eyes and leaning into your touches.  


“You need a shave and a haircut, but this is the best that I can do for you.”  


“Do I? The scruffy look was growing on me,” Noct turned and smiled at you, and you snorted even though you were happy that he was at least trying to be a bit of his normal self. You made a show of scrutinizing his face, tilting your head to the side.  


“Alright, I’ll say that the pseudo-beard you’re attempting definitely gives you a rugged manly look.”  


“Great. I’ll be sure to rub it in Gladio’s face when I see him.” His smile faltered a little. “Is he still pissed at me? You know... for not stepping up when I should have?”  


Shaking your head, you reached for the soap. “Nope. He’s actually pretty apologetic for being too hard on you. I guess you guys just needed space from each other to cool down, but that wasn’t something that was afforded to us back then. And... well, I suppose ten years of space was _just_ enough to get Gladio’s head out of his ass.” You started with his shoulders, working the lather into his skin. While it was true he was thin, you could see and feel the corded lean muscle that always stayed hidden on his frame.  


“Did Specs ever...”  


“Get his vision back? No,” you worked your way down his arms. “But would you believe me if I said that he’s clearly twice the man he was when he _could_ see? Sometimes even I forget he’s blind, and I’ve been staying with him since the darkness fell. But he always says that it couldn’t have come at a better time; the land went full on panic mode when the sun didn’t rise again, when Iggy already knew how to navigate it.”  


“That definitely sounds like him. Turning the shittiest situation into an advantage.” He took the bar of soap from you and started returning the favor you had given him. “And Prom?”  


“Doing well, actually. He and Cor had been traveling far along the outreaches of Eos, hunting down the biggest and baddest daemons and living to tell the tale. The rabble we get around here is small fry for him.” You turned away from him, moving your hair to the side. “Okay, I know I went into this helping you out, but if you don’t mind getting my back...”  


“Of course not.” His hands splayed along your shoulder blades, moving smoothly with the help of the suds. “I’ve missed touching you.”  


He said it so casually that you were quite certain that he didn’t mean it in the way your mind was running with it, but you were glad to be facing away from him anyway to hide how your eyes went wide at hearing it. Suddenly, you were more aware than ever that you were two grown adults sharing a shower together, and your cheeks heated along with the water you were standing in as Noct massaged out some of the knots you forgot were there.  You made yourself relax, enjoying the intimacy of a co-ed shower that you previously only shared with Ignis.  It was natural for you to just slip in beside Ignis while he bathed, helping as you could, which was why you didn’t think twice about doing it with Noct.  It seemed that all he needed was to become used to dealing with human contact again after so long, and being gentle with him and talking him through things he hadn’t had the opportunity to discuss with anyone until now was bringing him out of his perceived shell-shock at being spat out into the ruined shell of a world that had carried on without him for a decade.  


You were just closing your eyes and letting your mind drift into nothing in particular when you felt Noct press his chest against the whole of your back… and the taletell poke of his member resting right at your buttocks.  You gasped, and Noct’s hands moved from your shoulders down to the swell of your hips.  
  
“I know I’m being forward,” Noct began, his lips at your ear and bringing goosebumps to your skin. “But… I _did_ think a lot about you while I was gone.  And I’ve been trying _really_ hard not to stare at you since you came in here naked like I wouldn’t remember the times we had…"  


Now you were blushing in earnest. “I swear, I didn’t come in here to seduce you. I-I mean, not like I wouldn’t be opposed to…um… but… I didn’t…"  


“I know.” Noct’s left hand traveled upwards and cupped your breast, his fingers tracing the areola.  You felt your nipple harden almost instantly at his light touches, and your back arched slightly, pushing your lower half that much more against Noct’s crotch.  He let out an exhale on the edge of a groan, and his hand moved enough to roll your nipple between his fingers in response.  


“On a scale of one to ‘I’ve kept a condom in my pocket hoping for the chance to smash’, just how badly have you wanted this?"  


He laughed a bit at that, knowing exactly what you were referring to.  “Bad enough to want to hear you moan for me again.”  His right hand that had been resting at your hip followed the dip that led down to your crotch, and parted your nether lips enough to feel for your clit.  You jerked at the sensation, now torn between what he was doing with your breast and what he had started to do to your pussy.  “Do you still make that sound I like so much?  The one that tells me that I’ve teased you too much?"  


_This isn’t fair.  He pops out of an ancient crystal able to sneak up on me like this._ You squirmed at the lazy circles he was making on your clit, slowly amping up your bubbling desire to have him again after so long.  “Don’t… edge me like you did before."  


“Why not?  Don’t tell me that you didn’t like it.”  Noct went back to kissing patterns along your neck and shoulder, sucking the moisture off of it in intervals.  Now your brain was split into fractions, trying to parse his hands on your chest and crotch while his lips danced on your skin and his erect penis insistently pressing itself into your behind.  It definitely wasn’t that you didn’t like it… but you _did_ remember that it was a particular type of sensual torture that Noct was surprisingly good at just out of a hyper curiosity to draw every whimper he could out of you.  You rubbed against his erection in earnest as your way of paying him back for what he was inflicting upon you now.  


“Don’t tell _me_ you didn’t like what I did to you once I had enough of your foreplay, your highness,” you purred, liking how his grip tightened a bit as you did so.  At this point, you knew that he was going over that heated first time you two had in the back of the Regalia as much as you were.  


“… I never thought I’d ever like being called my title before I heard you say it like that, fuck…” Noct’s breathing deepened even more, and his teeth grazed along your earlobe as his fingers kept up their job.  You grinned triumphantly, taking some comfort in the fact that you were driving him just as wild as he had set to do to you.  Then, he was pulling you even closer to him, and the fingers that were on your clit moved even lower to slip inside you, causing you to squeak at the intrusion.  Even with the water running over you both, you knew he could tell just how wet you had become for him, his fingers pushing in to the knuckle before slowly dragging out.  Your inner walls tightened slightly around his digits, and the groan you emitted was as much from arousal as it was due to impatience at not having what you really wanted in between your thighs.  


“The water is getting cold.  So, forgive me for rushing you again, but…” you spun around in his grip, thankful for the water making that maneuver easy for you.  “We’re going to need to… oh, wow…"  


Temporarily derailed from backing Noct right up against that tile wall and effectively cutting him off from taking you through what was very much going to turn into the longest foreplay session ever, you stared in awe at the vision that greeted you.  It was still Noct, but with the pall of haggardness lifted from him.  The water had smoothed down his hair, framing his face that had grown into features you could appreciate properly.  His lips were parted slightly, and lust clearly burned in his eyes as he  studied you, but you were drawn in by the glowing hue his irises had taken on.  You remembered during battles where Noct was forced to call upon the power of the Astrals to get you guys out of tricky situation, that his eyes would take on a magenta gleam.  This was similar, only with his age and the darkening of his usual bright blue eye color came the maturity of that quirk of his, looking more red than pink and swirling in a hypnotizing manner.  


“What?"  


You didn’t have time to drag him out to the mirror to see the phenomenon that was occurring, so you just took his face in your hands and maneuvered him back towards the shower wall.  “Nothing.  You’re just… beautiful as always, Noct.”  Then you leaned forward, and he fell right into a dance that made you remember just how good of a kisser he was.  The stubble that graced his cheeks grazed you intermittently, amplifying your need to consummate a connection with what was a young prince that had since grown into the king he was.  His hands found your ass, kneading it before taking one of your legs and hoisting it up so that your knee reached his waist.  You could feel his cock brushing against you between your legs, and it was driving you insane how it wasn’t quite where you wanted it to be.  


“You were the most beautiful thing I saw back in that floating fortress, even if you hated me,” Noct spoke between kisses, grunting as you became more fervent with your affections.  “To someone who thought he had lost everything… you were a gift that saved me from fully falling in on myself.  And now you’re here to help pick me up.”  He sighed and cupped the back of your head.  “It’s going to be even harder to leave you again."  


Your chest constricted as his honest words, even as your hormones were doing a number on you. You didn’t want to think of the fact that this was one battle Noct wasn’t going to come back from.  You didn’t want to think about the heartbreak you and the boys would endure after being reunited with their best friend and liege at the end of that road.  It was too much too soon, and you whined as you pressed your breasts against his chest.  


“Then let’s make the best of what we have right now, Noct,” you whispered into his ear.  “Take me however you need."  


That seemed to spur him into action, spinning you so that your back was braced against the cold wall and his body blocked the majority of the shower stream.  He lined himself up with the hand that he wasn’t using to keep your leg balanced at his side, and slid easily within your heat with a welcome moan.  He filled you nicely, and your fingertips bit into his shoulders as he started his pace.  The water was running a lot more on the tepid side now, but you couldn’t care less.  There was only you and him, and how good he felt finally within you.  


“Fuck… Noct…” You met his thrusts as you could, egging both of you on.  The wet slap of your bodies echoed through the shower stall, and made you even more delirious in your lustful haze.  His motions became a bit more sharp, punctuating his thrusts with grunts that told you that he was losing himself in you.  Every now and then, his eyes would flutter, and you would get a glimpse of his red eyes again.  It was so surreal, seeing your king again, someone who you had watched go through so many trials and tribulations to culminate in this moment where you both were clinging to each other and sating desires that had cropped back up even after all the years that had passed.  Yet, it was different than what you two had experienced before.  You always knew that he cared for you, knowing how important you were to Ignis and the others in your own way, but there had always been a wall you couldn’t breach.  Noct had always been just out of reach, and it was something you accepted since he carried so much on his shoulders and also with the knowledge that he had a marriage to go through and a face to put on for the world.  


But now, a lot of Noct’s old life had fallen away by tragedy and time, and from the rubble of it all, he had settled on you somehow to be his guiding light when the world needed him to be theirs.  


“Shit…” his eyes flew open suddenly, his hips stuttering as his orgasm took him by surprise.  He gasped and pulled you flush against him, releasing his seed inside you and groaning with the ease of tension that he’d been holding.  You kissed him vigorously, marveling at the feel of him pulsing before your body followed suit, rippling around his member and moaning into his mouth as you came.  Eventually, the both of you parted lips and stood with your foreheads touching, breaths heavy… and ice cold water pelting you.  Feeling overly sensitive to temperature changes now that the moment had come and gone, you hastily detached yourself from Noct and reached around him, braving the shower’s deluge long enough to frantically turn the knobs to shut off.  


“G-gods, was it a-always that freezing??” Your king’s teeth chattered comically, and you giggled even as a full body shiver took you over.  


“Maybe.  Let’s get you dried off.  I really don’t need the chosen one unable to save the world because he caught a cold right before he was due to do it."

There weren’t many towels, but you dried off with one as fast as you could before wrapping Noct’s shoulders in it as he dried off his hair.  There was a robe hanging off to the side, which you helped yourself to as Noct made his way out and sat on the edge of the bed, feeling warmer once he was out of the bathroom and surrounded by soft terrycloth towels.  


“Well, I can definitely say that’s one way to get a man ready to face the most important battle of his life.  I’m beginning to see what all those romance novels were getting at when the soldier would have this big long sex session with his woman before going off to war or something.  It gets the blood pumping."  


You blinked at him a few times. “Wait a minute… you actually _read_ cheesy romance novels?"  


As if he just realized how he spilled the beans all over himself, Noct gave you a sheepish grin that reminded you of the prince you first met and traveled with.  “Ignis said I needed to read at least two books a week.  He didn’t specify what kind."  


Cackling in disbelief, you took a seat in a chair across from him and placed your chin in your hand.  “Did he make you do book reports to ensure that you were keeping up with his schedule?"  


Blushing, Noct scratched his head.  “No… he just made sure that I was in the library when I was supposed to, since he knew I wouldn’t bother even going if I wasn’t reading.  But I’m sure he figured it out and let me think I kept it a secret."  
  
Looking even more mischievous, you bit your lower lip.  “I’ll just have to ask him if he remembers."  


“DON’T YOU DAR-"  


Noct’s exclamation was cut off by a rattling at the door, and both of you turned with wide eyes to see it swing open shortly after and Prompto casually step in, setting a couple of bags off to the side before he realized that he was not alone. Of course, when he did, he gave a high pitched yell and placed his hand over his chest dramatically, looking at you as if you meant to attack him.  


“Holy _shit_ , ________, why the hell are you in here and not out on patrol with Talcott?  And why are you wearing that icky hotel robe??  And…” His eyes traveled from you to the person sitting on the bed, who was staring back at him with a mixture of happiness and uncertainty.  You couldn’t help but suck in a breath, waiting to see how things would play out.  


“Noct, buddy?  Is that you?”  Prompto’s voice was hopeful, but clearly frightened to believe that it was who he thought it was sitting only a few feet away from him after waiting so long.  


“Yeah.  Sorry it took me awhile,”  Noct shrugged, feigned nonchalance being his form of prepping himself at seeing his friend again.  “But I’m back."  


Prompto took awhile to take him in, sitting there in his rented room as if he had always been there and was just late to dinner, before springing into action and dashing across the room to give his long lost best friend a tackle hug that sent them falling over.  


“You’re back.  Holy shit, you’re _back_ ,” Prompto repeated over and over, refusing to let Noct even move from his spot.  You could feel the pinprick of tears at the corners of your eyes watching that reunion, and swallowed roughly and blinked fast to clear them.  


“What the hell, Prom, you put on some _weight_!”  Noct squirmed a bit.  “How is that even fair, now I’m the only skinny one!"  


The blond grinned and sat back, allowing his friend to sit up properly.  “Sorry, dude.  But I did have to work on it.  Not all of us can like, _sleep_ our years away.”  That earned him a harsh slap to the shoulder, and the gunman could only laugh at the retribution.  


“Whatever, I can still warp circles around your ass.”  Noct’s face became petulant and cute, and you shook your head at how easy the two fell back into regular banter.  You watched as both of them seemed to temporarily forget about your presence there, but you didn’t mind.  It gave you such happiness to see even half of your boys together again, and if you could wish for it, then you wouldn’t care if the world passed you by as long as you could see them reunited.  



End file.
